Reasons to be cheerful

[LMcD]

Genoa I couldn't tell you. Would Serrano?

He's probably too busy watching Bergerac.

Wilfred Owen might have considered the alternation of cheerful stories and the discussion of the origins of WW1 on this thread a really Strange Meeting.

[Pulcinella]

Do we need a 'Reasons to be despondent' thread?

We've just had a filler at the end of the Met Tosca.
Apparently if was JSB's French Suite number 1, played by Angela Hewitt.

Funny (oh: should I post on the A funny thing...thread?): I always thought there was more than one movement in that suite (and the others).

Are we now being subjected to a 1984-style Newspeak redefinition/terminology, to convince us that R3 is playing complete works?

(PS: The website at least gets it right. It was the Sarabande.)

[Ein Heldenleben]

He's probably too busy watching Bergerac.

Wilfred Owen might have considered the alternation of cheerful stories and the discussion of the origins of WW1 on this thread a really Strange Meeting.

Well one reason for being cheerful is that I’m
not in Gallipoli 1916 unlike my two Grandads who were about 18 at the time.
Just read Robert Harris’s Precipice . While Asquith was getting his leg over and Churchill mishandling things my relatives were getting trench feet and shell shock .
That’s one way of joining two strands together.

[french frank]

Do we need a 'Reasons to be despondent' thread?

We've just had a filler at the end of the Met Tosca.
Apparently if was JSB's French Suite number 1, played by Angela Hewitt.

Funny (oh: should I post on the A funny thing...thread?): I always thought there was more than one movement in that suite (and the others).

A reason to be despondent might be the apparently diminishing number of listeners who care ...

[LMcD]

Do we need a 'Reasons to be despondent' thread?

We've just had a filler at the end of the Met Tosca.
Apparently if was JSB's French Suite number 1, played by Angela Hewitt.

Funny (oh: should I post on the A funny thing...thread?): I always thought there was more than one movement in that suite (and the others).

Are we now being subjected to a 1984-style Newspeak redefinition/terminology, to convince us that R3 is playing complete works?

(PS: The website at least gets it right. It was the Sarabande.)

Pieces are increasingly being announced as though we're about to hear them complete, even though we know very well that we're only going to hear one movement or extract.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Do we need a 'Reasons to be despondent' thread?

We've just had a filler at the end of the Met Tosca.
Apparently if was JSB's French Suite number 1, played by Angela Hewitt.

Funny (oh: should I post on the A funny thing...thread?): I always thought there was more than one movement in that suite (and the others).

Are we now being subjected to a 1984-style Newspeak redefinition/terminology, to convince us that R3 is playing complete works?

(PS: The website at least gets it right. It was the Sarabande.)

Beautifully played though.

that Tosca was weird
Tomasso magnificent - a big star in the making.
Scarpia had a beautiful voice . Lise Davidsen has a wonderful voice but the role doesn’t suit it.
Bur Yannick Nezet-Seguin’s tempi were so slow it was painful . What was going on ?

[LMcD]

Well one reason for being cheerful is that I’m
not in Gallipoli 1916 unlike my two Grandads who were about 18 at the time.
Just read Robert Harris’s Precipice . While Asquith was getting his leg over and Churchill mishandling things my relatives were getting trench feet and shell shock .
That’s one way of joining two strands together.

My great-uncle was killed, aged 20, during the Battle Of The Somme, and I quite often think of him when gazing out to sea or admiring my handiwork in the garden. His twin brother, i.e. my grandfather, also served in WW1 and lived well into his 80s but never mentioned him - understandably, perhaps - and nor did anybody else in the family. After being shown his name on the Thiepval Memorial during a Battlefields Tour I spent a lot of time during Covid lockdowns discovering more about him. I treasure a birthday card which he sent to my grandfather in December 1915 on their 20th birthday informing him that he had just enlisted with the Northamptonshire Regiment.

[Historian]

Wilfred Owen might have considered the alternation of cheerful stories and the discussion of the origins of WW1 on this thread a really Strange Meeting.

That is certainly a possibility. In my defence, one of the things that makes me cheerful is discussing history (as well as not having to experience it in the same way as the people who lived through it at the time). My great-uncle fought at Gallipoli and survived, but to no great age. My grandfather came through the Western Front but was fortunate enough to be sent to Italy in November 1917 which give him a much better chance of survival.

[LMcD]

That is certainly a possibility. In my defence, one of the things that makes me cheerful is discussing history (as well as not having to experience it in the same way as the people who lived through it at the time). My great-uncle fought at Gallipoli and survived, but to no great age. My grandfather came through the Western Front but was fortunate enough to be sent to Italy in November 1917 which give him a much better chance of survival.

I think my grandfather survived because, after being wounded, he was transferred to a labour battalion, which may well have kept him out of the front line.

[Historian]

I think my grandfather survived because, after being wounded, he was transferred to a labour battalion, which may well have kept him out of the front line.

Yes, although very hard work and still sometimes risked being shelled despite being more in the rear areas. A few units were pressed into service as infantry in the dark days of March/April 1918 apparently. Much more information on their organisation here.

[LMcD]

Yes, although very hard work and still sometimes risked being shelled despite being more in the rear areas. A few units were pressed into service as infantry in the dark days of March/April 1918 apparently. Much more information on their organisation here.

Many thanks for introducing me to The Long Long Trail.
I've found out a great deal at my local library, accessing Ancestry for free with my reader's card.
I would like to find out more about my paternal grandfather, who was born in what is now Eire and enlisted in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He'd reached the rank of RSM by the time he was discharged. One of the problems I've encountered is that older handwritten records are sometimes misread and wrongly copied, which is why his surname isn't consistent !

[Pulcinella]

Beautifully played though.

that Tosca was weird
Tomasso magnificent - a big star in the making.
Scarpia had a beautiful voice . Lise Davidsen has a wonderful voice but the role doesn’t suit it.
Bur Yannick Nezet-Seguin’s tempi were so slow it was painful . What was going on ?

Certainly was!
Tosca miscast (new role for her I think they said); someone at the Met should have realised.

[Historian]

Many thanks for introducing me to The Long Long Trail.
I've found out a great deal at my local library, accessing Ancestry for free with my reader's card.
I would like to find out more about my paternal grandfather, who was born in what is now Eire and enlisted in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He'd reached the rank of RSM by the time he was discharged. One of the problems I've encountered is that older handwritten records are sometimes misread and wrongly copied, which is why his surname isn't consistent !

Another reason to be cheerful. I have sent you a PM.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Many thanks for introducing me to The Long Long Trail.
I've found out a great deal at my local library, accessing Ancestry for free with my reader's card.
I would like to find out more about my paternal grandfather, who was born in what is now Eire and enlisted in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He'd reached the rank of RSM by the time he was discharged. One of the problems I've encountered is that older handwritten records are sometimes misread and wrongly copied, which is why his surname isn't consistent !

Small world as my grandfather was also a sergeant in the Dubs - 7th Btn. I’ll send a personal message when I’ve worked out how to do it as I’m interested in how you found out more . UK army records have taken an age to not respond. Interesting and historic regiment - Molly Bloom’s father Major Tweedy was a fictional officer in it. Leo Bloom also refers to them.

[LMcD]

Small world as my grandfather was also a sergeant in the Dubs - 7th Btn. I’ll send a personal message when I’ve worked out how to do it as I’m interested in how you found out more . UK army records have taken an age to not respond. Interesting and historic regiment - Molly Bloom’s father Major Tweedy was a fictional officer in it. Leo Bloom also refers to them.

Historian has sent me a very helpful PM, and I'm sure he'd be pleased to advise you on how to proceed depending on what you've managed to find out so far. In my experience, the more one discovers, the more addictive the process becomes - but, again, that's an observation rather than a complaint.
My paternal grandfather was in the 6th Btn.. As far as I know, he never returned to Ireland, but I do have two photos - one taken at my mother's wedding in Ipswich and one of his headstone in a cemetery in Grimsby. On my mother's wedding certificate he gives his profession as 'Chief Clerk, Corporation', but as far as I can tell he was a storekeeper!